Illinois’ largest employee group – AFSCME – is starting a strike authorization vote for its 30-thousand members. The union has been in a more than year-long deadlock with Governor Bruce Rauner over contract talks. The battle has been both at the negotiating table and in court.
AFSCME leaders claim the Governor’s proposal would impose extreme terms on state employees, including eliminating all safeguards against irresponsible subcontracting. AFSCME also says there would be a four year wage and step freeze and a 100-percent increase in employee health care premiums.
‘’The wage freeze combined with such a steep health care hike would mean a $10,000 pay cut for the average state employee,’’ said AFSCME in a statement issued Monday. It adds: ‘’That might not be much to Rauner, but it’s too much for the rest of us.’’
The union says that in an effort to break the year-long stalemate it recently forwarded a new settlement framework where union employees would receive no increase in their base wage for four years – and would pay a moderate increase in health insurance. But AFSCME says the Governor has dismissed that proposal as ‘’superficial.’’
[The photo was taken outside the Danville Correctional Center during informational picketing by AFSCME workers in the summer of 2015.]
